Tips for a migrate?

I've been a long time user of Poser, but paradoxically had a preference for Daz Studio models (Victoria, Micheal and so on). The Genesis models were a real eye opener though, and I found it hard to resist temptation when Daz Studio 4.5 pro was offered as freely (though I'm still waiting on the serial code it seems).

Aside from the obvious cosmetic differences, there are a lot of new features I'm not used to having, and some which I'm used to having which do not seem to be present, such as the cloth room. That said, the Genesis figures are so unique and, dare I say, powerful that I feel compelled to master this new interface as a preference rather than an alternative.

I've tried reading up on the differences between Poser and Daz, but mostly these involve forum postings which have degraded into petty squabbles over which one is better, which isn't very constructive. As a user of BOTH systems, I'm just curious to know what systems are present in both and which ones are not.

I had purchased it before but I put it into the basket a second time (literally just now) and got the serial code this time around. I now have two copies of the purchase in my invoice list. It wouldn't allow me to do that yesterday as it was limited to 1 purchase per person. Not sure why it allowed it today, perhaps because of an error somewhere, but either way the serial code was received and my copy is now unlocked.

As much as I loathe bumping my own thread, I wanted to ask a related question without starting a new thread on the topic.

I'm having troubles installing Decimator for DAZ Studio. It tells me that it can't find the install directory and simply fails. DAZ is properly installed and operational, and models I purchased recently such as Aiko, Michael and Victoria install and run perfectly fine as well. However, DAZ is not installed into the 'default' directory, so I'm wondering if this might be a factor.

Decimator does not come as part of the free DAZ Studio 4 (or 4.5) for contractual reasons. If you bought it previously, then you need to make sure that you are installing the correct version. What version of DS are you using (Help > About DAZ Studio), and what is the version number of the Decimator you are trying to install?

Well, that is curious now isn't it? It was in my downloadable products after going through the Daz purchase, so either I've gained something I shouldn't have or the policy has somehow changed. You can see in the attached image that it's there as plain as day, so I can only assume it's the latest version. It seems to be an error on behalf of Daz that I even have it to begin with. Should that be the case I will happily remove the installer from local storage until such time as I deem fit to purchase it from the store properly.

As for the version, I'm currently running the 64-bit version Daz version 4.5.1.6.

We used to have to reset the downloads to get the latest version, but it seems now to be included with the download so taht the correct version is available.

Running and installing the download will not do any good anyway, as the Plugin requires a seperate serial number. To cut a long story short, don't bother to install it unless you have a serial, as it wont work anyway.

This is a very broad subject, and I'm not much of a Poser user so I'll probably address only some of the things you can do. I'm also trying to keep this as short as possible so I may not explain everything properly.
1) Customise the lay-out: you can have Rooms if that is what you like. Go to Window->Workspace->Select Layout and pick either Hollywood Boulevard or Self Serve. You can then click at the top of each "Activity tab" to change "room". City Limits is the Layout with the greatest number of icons, though, but it doesn't have activity tabs.
You can also customise which tab goes where, simply click on its name and drag it into the view-port to un-dock it (you can also move it to the other tab directly). To spawn a tab you have closed by mistake or that isn't available by default in the layout go to Window->Panes (Tabs)->and select one. Puppeteer and Powerpose may be two tabs you may like to experiment with.
Finally, pretty much everything can be customised with Window->Workspace->Customize (F3).
2) Content: sigh. I think I'll leave this for others. I'll just say that only recent products (Genesis generation for the most part) will show up in Smart Content. However all of your installed content will show up in the Content Library tab. In this tab right click on "Poser Formats" and select Add a Runtime Directory... to make DS aware of your Poser runtimes! Above Poser Formats is DAZ Studio Formats which hosts (almost) all native DS Content. To load a Genesis figure go to DAZ Studio Formats->->People->Genesis, you can either double click on it or drag it in the viewport. Things are organised a bit differently than in a Poser Runtime, and sometimes you have to search for stuff under different sections (e.g. the DS preset for Marie Elite is somewhere, but other Elites tend to land elsewhere, for whatever reason). There is also a Categories which lets you organise your content as you like, but I'll leave it for those who use it. You can multiselect (Shift or Control as in Windows) several objects/figures/props/materials and drag them in the viewport to load them all. Pressing Alt while dragging will generate a yellow and red tool to load a figure/prop in a specific place instead of <0,0,0>.
3) Once things are loaded, they show up in the Scene tab so you can select them. There are several different tools for interacting with your scene items that appear just under the Activity tabs. There are tools for "node" selection (everything that appears in the scene tab is a node, be it the figure root or just a body-part; camera, etc.) and posing and for surface selection. You can create new lights and cameras. By default there is a light parented to the camera, which is unselectable and will be hid if you add a light. You can look through those cameras and lights by clicking on "Perspective View" and selecting the light or camera instead. You must select a camera in there to render. If you drag a clothing figure on a figure it should "Fit to" (autoconform) automatically. If it doesn't you can go to the Parameters tab, click "Fit To" and the figure it should be fitted. If it's a V4/M4/K4 clothing that you added on Genesis this will also trigger the infamous Autofit. ;-)
Hair props (and all other props) can be Parented to a figure head, or other appropriate part. Go to Scene tab after having loaded them, expand the figure tree until you see the Head and drag the hair prop to it.
4) Cameras tab and Lights tab work on only one of those at a time. If you want to adjust several Lights (colour, intensity, etc.) at once multiselect them in the Scene tab and make the changes in the Parameters tab (in general most of the interesting stuff goes through the Parameters tab, rather than the more specialised tabs; another tab to keep an eye on is the Tool tab, which gives plenty of options depending on which selection tool you have active).
5) Nulls for moving or rotating stuff all at once. Select all the things you wan to be parented to the Null and go to Create->New Null. In the new window select "Target New Null with selected item(s)". You can then rotate the null (in Parameters tab or by hand) to rotate all the parented items.
6) Right click everywhere. Plenty of options are available usually by right clicking. Most stuff is now available also in the Edit menu, but it's a fairly recent addition.
7) Options buttons. At the top inner (towards the viewport, but if the tab names are horizontal it's always on the top right corner) corner of all tabs is a little triangle followed by lines, click on it to reveal lots and lots of options.
8) Add an Author name, if you haven't already, that will "unlock", I guess, the Save option. Otherwise it acts as a Save As function (this is to avoid overwriting scenes that aren't identified as made by you).
That's what I can think of for now.

Thanks for the tips. One of the things I am noticing is that lights in Daz function slightly differently to Poser lights. For starters, the 'Diffuse IBL' isn't available in Daz, and I'm not entirely sure how to go about setting up an Image Based Lighting effect. Things like atmosphere strength and ambient occlusion are also absent in Daz light options, though I did notice there was a shader function for the latter. Does this mean that to add ambient occlusion I'll need to add in this shader to every object in the scene or is there an easier method?

Lights are a key point to making renders seem more lifelike, so I hope these teething troubles can be resolved.

Even normal lights are different (I think in Poser they add their effect, while in DS the shadow has a multiplicative effect on all the lights, so it ends up darker in DS).
IBL can be done most easily by using UberEnvironment which can be found in DAZ Studio Formats->My Library->Light Presets->omnifreaker->UberEnvironment2.
You first bring up the "!UberEnvironment2 Base" file then go in the Scene tab, select the "UberEnvironment2 1" node and apply one of the presets. I use practically only the Set HDR Kitchen and Set HDR KHPark presets. Then in the Parameters tab you can click on Light and adjust its properties, among which there is a drop-down to select AO (soft or with directional shadows), Indirect Diffuse (again soft or directional) or GI(Global Illumination). To get rid of render splotchiness either increase the number of samples; reduce the Shading rate (still in the Parameters tab, not the one in the render settings); or reduce max_error (although I think it used to work better in DS3). All of these will slow down the render significantly.
You can also add Ambient Occlusion on a material in Shader Mixer (the Material Room of DS), but it's a lot fiddlier if you have many of them, naturally.
There are two ways that I know of to make Fog: one is with DAZ Studio Formats->My Library->Shader Presets->omnifreaker->UberVolume, which works just like UberEnvironment. I.e. apply first the base item then the type of fog.
You can also add a fog by using a Shader Builder pre-made shader (in the shader builder panel Volume->RiSpec then either Ri_DepthCue or Ri_Fog). You apply them to a camera, by right click on either of the shaders and selecting "Apply shader to Camera" (selected or current).

Oddly enough, I had issues even finding the UberEnvironment2 lights so I took a second look at my installation. Apparently when I tried to setup Daz to use Poser's runtimes I somehow picked it as an install directory for a few things, including the extra missing shaders like UberEnvironment2 and the UberVolume shaders. The answer to my many mysteries are solved! Well, at least the more pressing ones.

Incidentally, is there a way I can reload the metadata required for UberEnvironment so I can list it under Smart Content?